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Thursday, 22 August 2013

We spent last week away enjoying the type of British seaside holiday I remember having when I was a child. Bucket and spade holidays on rocky, beachy shores peering in rock pools are the stuff memories are made of. Last week I sought to bank some for Pip, on the Jurassic coast. He absolutely loved it; proof that you don’t need to travel far for kids to have a good time. My three good things this week are about our holiday.

One.

Beside the Sea.I love the Dorset coast; the undulating up and down of the hills, the spectacular views. I particularly like Lyme Regis. It’s a quaint old place. I like the pretty painted cottages along the seafront, the gift shops on the hilly high street, the curve of the bay, the boats bobbing in the water by The Cobb. Our cottage was close to the beach. Each day would start with the seagulls cawing on the roof at dawn. Usually by then I was awake with EB anyway, I rather liked it; a nice reminder each morning that we were beside the sea. We were also lucky enough to have access to a beach hut for the week. In one week I have become a complete convert to beach hut living, or rather, nuts about huts. I'm sure it's a peculiarly British thing but I just found something immensely enjoyable about setting up camp there for a day. On our final night we took a bottle of champagne down to the hut early evening and sat and watched the sun go down - it was a lovely way to end our week.

Two.

Gone Fishing. Pip experienced his first ever fishing trip courtesy of Daddy and Grandpa. I’ll never forget the look on his face as he ran back along The Cobb with his haul of ten mackerel swinging from his lifted hand. Happiness shone from him. Barbecued for tea with some herbs from the garden plus some lemon and chilli, they tasted rather good.

Three.

A lesson in preparing pizza. Regular readers will know that we are planning to install a pizza oven in our garden shortly. As an induction to this, Husband, Pip and I headed off to River Cottage for a morning to participate in their pizza making course. It was a great experience and lovely to do something with Pip on his own. We all thoroughly enjoyed it, from making the dough and kneading it, to placing the toppings on and eating. Suffice to say, the pizza oven project is now progressing with renewed fervour. Looking at the abundance of home grown produce in our tour of the River cottage gardens was a treat too - and has inspired me to grow some of my own herbs and vegetables when we return back to our house next year. I'm linking this post up to the #threegoodthings linky over at Margot and Barbara. What are your three good things from the last week?

Wednesday, 7 August 2013

The sunshine continues (aside from one torrential downpour this week) and life feels good. Dare I say it? At just over the half way point, the summer holidays are turning out to be just fine.* It really does seem to me that good weather can make life feel easier.

The last week has been brimming with many good things; these are my top three:

One.

Where I live. Summer in the city can be hard work; hot and sticky, with little breeze. Sometimes it feels as though there’s not enough air, that in the heat, the melting pavements and sky high buildings have sucked it all away. I’m grateful that we live in a green part of London, with wide, open spaces, plenty of play parks, an outdoor splash pool and that we are within a stone's throw of the Thames. We’ve lived here thirteen years now and finally, I feel part of a community. I see people I know on the street, I stop and chat. This is now the place I call home - and I love it.

Two.

We Are Lucky. Today I managed to escape for a couple of hours without the children to view the We Are Lucky exhibition at Chris Beetles Fine Photographs in Mayfair. I have been following the We Are Lucky project for a while now - a modern philanthropy project with a twist. We Are Lucky came about when one man came into a considerable amount of money and decided to do something good with it. He decided to pass his good luck on, giving £1000 a day away to complete strangers, the only condition behind the gift, that they had to do something positive with the cash, (and allow him to take a few photos, ask a few questions and build a portfolio of stories.). The website detailing the stories of individuals who have taken part is fascinating; visiting the exhibition equally so. I think the story behind this project would make a fabulous script for a film. I spent a very happy morning lost in wonderment this morning in Mayfair.

Three.

Living Colour. In the last couple of weeks, Pip has begun to show lots of interest in colouring and drawing. After a year of undecipherable squiggles in only black or green (“It’s a volcano, Mummy.”) I am now the recipient of multi-coloured pictures and something more than a basic man (a basic Thomas the Tank engine). Finally, his name is being written in legible format (albeit in font size 100). This makes me incredibly happy given that he will shortly be starting school. Even the fact that he is happy to sit still for 20 minutes or so, and focus himself on a drawing activity is a massive step change. Proof again, that like most other things with Pip, he’ll do it when he’s ready - and not before.

That’s my three good things for this week. What would yours be? You can link up with the Three Good Things series at Margot and Barbara.